


The Wanderers

by ja54591



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, Gen, Post-Season/Series 04
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:34:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27450547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ja54591/pseuds/ja54591
Summary: The war is over. Unsure of her place in a rebuilding galaxy, Sabine Wren is called to action by a guide thought to be long-departed. Across the galaxy, the arrival of a new threat transforms Ezra Bridger's exile from a battle for survival to a journey of discovery. Both must reconcile the choices of their past with their understanding of the powers that guide their future.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	The Wanderers

For as long as Vader had known him, Palpatine had instilled a level of fear in those around him. Even before he declared himself master of the known universe, the then-chancellor radiated a sense of absolute authority that he used to bend allies and enemies alike to his purpose. Perhaps that was the key to his success; the ability to be magnetically charming and charismatic in one moment, then immediately menacing the next. Many would attribute these qualities to being the consummate politician and statesman: Palpatine, the political savant of his time.

Vader knew better.

Political genius and social acumen were traits possessed by thousands of beings throughout galactic history. Their powers rose with the tides of the events around them, then receded as the same forces stripped their authority away from them. As much as grey-bearded scholars prattled on about the significance of their accomplishments, their gains were the same as their losses: temporary, fleeting, ephemeral.

Palpatine was different.

Palpatine was _Sith_.

No historian would ever speak of the dark forces that had destined Palpatine’s rise to power, few would even know of it. Even The Jedi, Palpatine’s closest ally at the end of the Old Order, knew not of Palpatine’s true identity or power. As small men such as Gunray or Dooku connived and conquered their way to their fiefdoms, Palpatine had seen the greater picture. With the Dark Side of the Force at his command, he had set in motion the greatest undertaking in galactic history: order. True, lasting peace. Power that would never dissipate or recede.

The end of history as the galaxy had known it.

Many would think that the same force of will was the defining characteristic that held the New Order together from Palpatine’s throne. But as Vader knelt at the onyx steps below it, he could feel the dark clouds of force energy pulsing through the room, penetrating the walls and circling the apex of power of the universe: Darth Sidious. The aura penetrated advisors and admirals, politicians and statesmen alike. On normal days, the power that bent mere men to his will was an awe inspiring thing to behold.

Today, though, the wrath of Lord Vader’s master boiled throughout the audience chamber. In the depths of his being, even the dark lord felt a degree of fear. 

“Garrisons as far away as Mykapo and Chandel have reported significant increases in public protest and rioting.” The senior colonel briefing the room could not hide the fear from her voice, each waiver amplified by the featureless walls of the chamber. “The system itself is deteriorating rapidly. Street fighting has broken out in nearly all of the major population centers of Garel, notably claiming the life of Vice-Moff Tanche.”

A surge of discomfort shifted Vader’s attention to the figure kneeling beside him. Grand Moff Tarkin was a hard man, ruthless against both his adversaries and his subordinates. As always, his posture was rigid and flawless, an immaculate portrayal of precision and strength. Behind the façade, Vader could feel the briefing feeding a growing fear within the ordinarily unyielding man; the vice-moff hadn’t fallen to insurgent fire as had Governor Pryce. The coward had taken his own life, lest he experience the repercussions of his failings. Vader wondered if the same thoughts had crossed the Grand Moff’s mind.

“...to the planet itself, we estimate Imperial forces still maintain a brigade’s worth of manpower between the remaining garrison and elements of the Seventh Fleet that survived planetfall, but they are isolated by both geography and loss of communication. We anticipate that these elements will be destroyed within ninety days if not supplemented by addition-“

“ _Enough_.”

Scarcely above a whisper, the voice snuffed out the words of the trembling analyst. Around him, Vader could feel the crackling vortex of energy lashing and striking, barely restrained from snuffing out all life in the room.

“Additional forces. More fleets. More resources, or the situation will ‘continue to deteriorate,’ am I to believe?” Sidious hissed, his gaze settling upon Tarkin’s stooped form. “The Seventh Fleet was requested, and the Seventh Fleet was sent. Now that it is gone, how many more shall we commit before this ‘local insurrection’ is pacified?”

“My lord,” Tarkin spoke, head still cowed towards the buffed flooring. “It is clear that this contagion has been allowed to embed itself into the planet’s population, to the point that rooting it out would be a long and costly venture. It may, however, be a useful test of the capabilities…”

“Of the _Stardust_ project?” Sidious finished, a humorless laugh punctuating the conclusion. “The mighty superweapon, which has yet to produce even a successful test of its main weapon?”

“Director Krennic assures me that completion of the project is imminent, and that it will be ready for immediate deployment…”

“Krennic is a fool,” the Emperor spat, “more concerned with personal status than achieving true results.” A small smile crept across the cracked remains of Vader’s lips. Try as they may to posture, no man could conceal their true nature from his master. “Inform Krennic that I will not tolerate further failures of the _Stardust_ program. Every moment longer the station remains inactive, the more powerful our adversaries grow. See to the tests personally; there can be no further interruption of our plans.”

Vader sensed the small flutter of movement as Tarkin rose to his feet, bowed, and led the small gathering of officers out of the chamber. His master’s dark aura followed them to the door, hanging like thunderheads over them until the group was fully gone.

Then, the wrath of his master turned to him.

“Lord Vader,” Sidious called, the word _lord_ sounding diminutive in his soft, gravelly voice. “I invite your assessment of the events.”

“Kanan Jarrus is dead. The rebellion is again without the symbolism or leadership of the Jedi. His protégé is lost to the galaxy, and poses no threat to our order.”

“Indeed,” Sidious said sharply. “So, you find victory in these events?”

Vader paused, his mechanical breathing echoing through the empty room. He was keenly aware of the trap he had stumbled into. The violent aura still filled the room, hostile and indecipherable as ever.

“The destruction of the Seventh Fleet is a grave loss, more so for its commander than its material,” Vader ventured, hoping that the middle ground would provide the greatest likelihood of defusing his master’s snare.

“The loss of the Grand Admiral is a setback, but no one tactician is decisive to the accomplishment of our goals. “ Vader heard the shifting of robes as Sidious rose, walking to the edge of the dais. “No, our loss on Lothal is far greater than Thrawn,” the Emperor mused. Vader felt a surge of anger course through his body, and did his best to suppress it. Frustrating as the unending riddles were, provoking his master’s anger further was certainly unwise.

“Come, my apprentice,” Sidious beckoned. “There is something you must see.” With a gesture, the Emperor dismissed the two crimson-robed guards flanking his throne, each disappearing into the shadows along the walls. As Vader rose and ascended the blackened steps, he watched as his master turned and walked to the small door cut into the wall beyond the dais. The door parted to allow the two to enter the small lift beyond, gliding closed behind them. Several times before Vader had used this lift to travel with the Emperor up to his private antechamber.

This time, the lift went down.

“My first charge to you was the destruction of the Jedi,” the Emperor said, without turning his head to face Vader. “In this, you have always produced results. The last smoldering embers of their poisonous order grow cold with the bodies of Tano and Jarrus. But these were only your first steps.” Vader felt the lift slow to a stop, the doors in front of them parting to reveal a darkened corridor.

His master walked with silent steps through the passage, lights along the walls illuminating and then dimming once more as they passed. “The Jedi could not stop our rise, nor will they be the instrument of our fall,” Sidious continued. A semicircle of lights brightened along the floor, displacing shadows from along the sides of the rotunda they had entered. Hollowed out from the surrounding stone, the walls were featureless but for the outline of a triangle that protruded from the far end of the room. “Only time, only death remain to stop us. If we are to create an order to last the centuries, we must conquer _time._ ”

The sensors in Vader’s mask highlighted long streaks of carbon scoring radiating towards the wall from a pedestal in the center of the chamber. Something about the scorching pattern called to him, a familiarity in the charred and cracking stone.

_Flame._

_Time._

_Death._

The stone, the fire, the power, all of it he had experienced it deep underneath his palace upon Mustafar. Channeled from the dark energies of the planet, the Force had revealed glimpses of the past and future to him. That same familiarity had resurfaced on rare but equally unexplainable moments in his life: Ashoka’s disappearance on Malachor, The Jedi’s encounter with the Mortis gods, and now here in the shadow of the Imperial Palace.

Awareness now spread through his mind, cold like poison in his veins. Vader had seen the world beyond time, even stood at its doorstep.

_Without_ _Sidious_.

Vader realized that Sidious now stood on the other side of the pedestal, gaze focused directly at him.

_Could he know?_

Vader had never mentioned the occurrences, to Sidious or any other living soul. Yet the Emperor, all-knowing and all-seeing, had so often divined the thoughts or feelings of those surrounding him, Vader’s included. Had this fact slipped past? Was this another riddle, or a test? Had Vader, like Krennic, duped himself into believing he could hide his nature from his master?

Sidious raised his hands to the rim of the dish, the withered extensions of fingers bearing like talons from the folds of his dark robes. Vader unconsciously tensed in anticipation of a torrent of lightning to engulf him, but none came. Instead, the ash and debris in the bowl began to tremble and shift, swept from the center as if by an unseen wind. A dull crimson glow began to illuminate the soot, until a point of metal rose emerged from the surface.

“Long have I watched Lothal, watched and waited. For a millennia, the Jedi sat upon untold power, unwilling or perhaps unable to fathom its significance,” Sidious whispered. The edge of metal slowly unburied itself from the layers of ash, rising up from the bowl and illuminating the chamber. Bits of char slipped free of the sides of the object, revealing the elongated octahedron’s intricate mosaic of translucent glass and darkened metal. “Of course, I had expected that it would be Jarrus that would have discovered its significance. Perhaps it is fitting that the apprentice could see what his master could not.”

Fully free of the ashes, the ancient holocron gently rotated in the air, gently suspended above the basin. Focusing intently on the crimson prism, Vader’s ocular sensors could detect warping, almost mottling patterns throughout the glass sides. Murmurs and whispers pricked at his conscious, the uncomfortable sensation of the Sith teachings contained within attempting to infiltrate his mind. Vader steeled himself, casting the voices forcefully away from his mind. There would be time to study and harness such powers, but not now. Not in front of Sidious.

“The ancient Sith spoke of time not as a measure, but as a connection between all places,” Sidious continued. “Connections between eras, between locations, but also between lives. Imagine, the ability to alter the past to fix the present or preserve the future. This, my dear friend, could be the opportunity you have long searched for. To restore _her._ ”

The implication seemed to shudder through his armor, leaving him hallow inside of it. He rarely allowed her to think of her name, let alone her memory, but try as he may, it still remained burnt upon his mind.

_Padme_.

Suddenly, anger flared within him. Vader could see a smile creep across Sidious’s lips, undoubtedly pleased with the raw emotions that he had unbridled within Vader. However, Vader’s anger no longer boiled with hatred towards Obi-Wan, or the war, or the galaxy itself for taking her from him. Vader knew better now.

It had been one of the glimpses in the shadows of Mustafar that had shown him the truth. Behind all of his anger, all of his pain, behind Padme, had stood Sidious. As he always did, Sidious had positioned himself perfectly to exploit the loss and use it to mold Vader into another instrument of his plans.

As of yet, Vader did not know what to do with that knowledge. In a sense, he had always known; just as the Jedi Counsel had used The Jedi as a tool to accomplish their purposes, so now did Sidious use Vader. The teachings of the Sith dictated as much. However, the yoke of yet another master wore upon Vader. _So many years a slave…_

Vader forced his mind to the present, scolding himself for allowing such thoughts to surface in front of Sidious.

“I have perceived this world, its power, but it remained just beyond my reach. That is, until the boy Bridger stumbled upon the solution,” Sidious spat. “Some of the greatest minds could barely contemplate such a plain, such a power, but it was he who obtained it. And he would have led me to reach it – had it not been for the events that interceded.”

Vader looked at the glowing holocron, than back to his master. That the neophyte he had so easily brushed aside had accessed such power was one issue; the other was that Sidious could not. More importantly, the events had transpired outside of Sidious’s control or will. Had Sidious _failed?_

Reaching out, Vader grasped the holocron from the air, turning over the glowing prism in his hands. “I will set out at once to find him,” he said.

“No.” Vader looked up from the holocron at Sidious’s curt reply. “Alas, this opportunity has passed, for now,” Sidious announced, turning back to the corridor. “The flow of the Force has become turbulent. I sense that the events on Lothal have set in motion something much greater than this loss.” Vader followed, his gaze returning to the holocron as its whispers again began to prod at the corners of his consciousness. 

“Go now, take the holocron to my facility on Eolas and then await my instructions on Mustafar. The coming days will be decisive in the destruction of the Rebellion and the end of the resistance to our plans,” Sidious mused as the doors of the turbolift opened to greet them. “One day, the time will be right for us to find the boy. Then, together we will unlock the secrets of the worlds beyond.”

Vader heard Sidious’s instructions, but his mind was awash with its own thoughts. It appeared that not only had Sidious failed in his ability to control the events on Lothal, but also to determine Vader’s thoughts and actions. This fallibility was something Vader had not considered, but now raised a multitude of possibilities. Perhaps this was the beginning of a new path for Vader, one that he could explore on his own, one he controlled. One more time, he pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind, but this time he allowed the whispers of the holocron to continue to speak to him.

“Yes, my master,” Darth Vader replied.


End file.
